Sandies shock Odessa

Saturday

Sep 25, 2010 at 12:22 AM

Odessa American

ODESSA - Odessa High running back Bradley Marquez set a school record. But the Amarillo High Sandies didn't mind. They won the war.

Bronchos running back Bradley Marquez rushed for 148 yards and became the school's all-time leading rusher, but it was the Amarillo High Sandies who celebrated at the end of the night with a 17-7 nondistrict victory at Ratliff Stadium.

Marquez, a senior, nhas 3,520 yards in his career, eclipsing the mark of 3,463 set by Bryon Townsend from 1945-1947.

"The record's nice, but we need to win these kinds of games," said Marquez, who scored one touchdown, his 17th of the season.

"We could never get into a rhythm on offense and that's frustrating because we have a good team. But we have a lot of things that we need to fix between now and our next game."

The Sandies (3-2) used their new Wing-T offense to perfection, finishing with 53 running plays and just four passes.

Running back Ashton Tillman led Amarillo High with 70 yards on seven carries, including a 59-yard touchdown run with 5:16 remaining in the third quarter that capped the scoring.

"I'll take the blame for this one," OHS head coach Ron King said. "I got out-coached.

"Amarillo's a good football team and did everything we thought they would by controlling the ball and taking time off the clock. I thought our defense did a good job for the most part in making some stops to get us the football, but we couldn't do anything with it."

It was the Bronchos who put points on the scoreboard first, taking advantage of a nice punt return by Johnny Campos late in the first quarter. Taking the ball at his own 32-yard line, Campos broke free of the Sandies' special teams and raced all the way to the Amarillo 13 before being stopped.

Three plays later Marquez was in the end zone on a run over the left side and it looked as if OHS had found its rhythm early.

But that was the last time the Bronchos would threaten and Amarillo would tie the game on its next possession, driving 59 yards in nine plays.

The drive ended when Amarillo quarterback Gabe Rodriguez found wing back Derek Dzik with a 16-yard touchdown pass over the left side with 10:16 left in the first half.

Rodriguez was 3-of-4 passing for 36 yards and one touchdown.

The Sandies took the lead for good on their next drive when kicker Mason Edmondson converted a 20-yard field goal with 5:44 remaining in the second quarter, after the OHS defense had stopped three straight plays at its 5.

After that it was just a matter of when Marquez would break the record as he had 53 of the 92 yards he needed at halftime.

Finally, with just over four minutes remaining in the third quarter, he took a handoff from quarterback Ryan Rios, burst through the right side of the line and 18 yards later, found himself alone at the top.